This blog has been set up to further the cause of compassion for Asylum Seekers.
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13.3.18

Newsletter for 13 March 2018 Rural Australians for Australia Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

Next Roadside Demo -
Coffs Base Hospital March 22th 2:30pm

Next market stall
Bellingen Sat 17th March

Our donation to ASC

Harmony Festival Sun
25th March

SHEV - Another
acronym

Border Force raids

Roadside
demonstration report

Last Thursday’s
roadside demonstration in Bellingen was a great success. There were eight of us
in all, the sun finally shone and we had a huge and positive response from
passing motorists. For the first time ever, we didn’t get a single negative
response. Thank you Bellingen! Our next demonstration will be in Coffs
Harbour, by the side of thePacific Highway, opposite the Base
hospital, on Thursday 22nd Marchfrom 2.30 to 4.00 pm. Please
try to join us if you can.

Market stall this
Saturday at the Bellingen Community Market

Our next market stall
is this coming Saturday, 17th March, from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. at
the Bellingen Community market. You will find our stall at site C29,
which is near tothe stage – a great spot, with lots of passing
traffic. As usual, we will be handing out leaflets, encouraging people to sign
our open letter to Bill Shorten and selling our merchandise on behalf of the
Asylum Seekers Centre. If you are able to join us for an hour or two to help
out on the stall, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.

Our recent
donation to ASC

We have just received
a brief, but enthusiastic response from Danijela Spadina, the fundraising
manager for ASC . Danijela writes: “Oh wow! How fantastic! And what a great
result to raise $900. It sounds like you guys are doing incredible advocacy
work in your community.”

Harmony Festival : Sunday
25th March, 9.30 am to 2.30 pm

A brief reminder
about the Harmony Festival, which will take place in the Botanic Gardens, Coffs
Harbour. It will be a wonderful celebration of the journeys that people
have made from across the world to make Coffs Harbour their home. You can look
forward to an uplifting and joyful experience of music, dance and food from
many countries.

SHEV : another
acronym to conjure with

When the government
legislated in December 2014 for the reintroduction of Temporary Protection
Visas, it introduced a new class of visa, named the Safe Haven Protection Visa.
As with the TPV, the visa is only issued once an asylum seeker’s claim for
refugee status has been investigated and upheld. The conditions attached to the
SHEV are similar to the TPV, but with several important differences. Firstly,
the SHEV is issued for a five-year period, rather than three, secondly holders
of a SHEV must reside and work, or study, in a designated regional area for a
minimum of three and a half years of the five-year visa period, and thirdly,
holders of SHEVS who meet the above conditions MAY be eligible to apply
for other classes of visa at the end of the period. Applications will be
assessed based on the applicant’s ongoing need for protection.

In recent months, the
proportion of refugees applying for SHEVs rather than TPVs, has increased
significantly. It is clearly far too early to judge how well the programme will
work.

It is important to
note that the SHEV, like the TPV, is a temporary visa, and that there are no
rights to family reunion.

Border force
removes a refugee family from the community

Last week, the
members of a Sri Lankan family were forcibly removed for their home in
Biloela, central Queensland, by a large contingent of police, ABF officers and
Serco guards. They were given just ten minutes to collect their belongings ,
before being driven away in two separate vehicles to Gladstone, from where they
were flown to Melbourne and taken to the Broadmeadows detention centre.
The family comprises Priya, her husband Nadesalingam, and their two daughters,
one aged two, and the other one nine months. Both girls were born in Australia.
Priya’s bridging visa had expired just a few days earlier, and she was working
with a case officer to get it renewed. This is a well-respected family who
have been working hard to make Australia home. A friend says “They
were looking to enrol Kopiga into the kindergarten. Priya is a dedicated mum
doing everything she could to help the kids. Nadesalingam is well-regarded at
the meatworks. Everyone is shocked and outraged about the way they just came
and swooped in and took the whole family. People are just appalled that this is
happening in Australia, that people can be treated in this way. Everyone who
had anything to do with this family wrote letters to the minister before
Christmas asking for the family to be granted permanent protection.”
Once in detention in Melbourne, the parents begged not to be deported, but
eventually, under severe pressure, were coerced into signing repatriation
documents. If they are removed, then it will clearly not be voluntarily on
their part. They will be returned under duress to a country where they have a
well-founded fear of persecution.

Please phone
Malcolm Turnbull’s office to protest and to demand that the family be allowed
to remain in Australia. (02) 6277 7700 or (02)
9327 3988.